‘Tis the season for yachtspotting

Fancy billionaire yachts entertain islanders

- LESLIE LANDRIGAN

STONINGTON—George Larrabee has a network of people who tell him if a yacht is near his home on Little Deer Isle. Larrabee will rush to the scene to take a photograph and then, if the vessel is heading eastward on the Reach, he’ll race to the bridge and get a shot. Then he’ll go home and find out everything he can about the boats he calls “fancy billionaire yachts.”

“When I see a big yacht I have to get the name, I have to look it up,” he said in a phone interview.

Sometimes he just gets lucky. On August 9, Larrabee happened to spot the 180-foot Silver Shalis anchored in front of Pumpkin Light. Then, he said, “I smoked it down to the bridge.” He snapped the yacht just as it sailed under the span.

Larrabee isn’t alone. The many yachts that ply the waters around Deer Isle in summer have inspired a network of yachtspotters who photograph their finds, research them and share what they’ve learned. Smartphones, Facebook and Google—and plenty of oceangoing billionaires—make it all possible. Just by Googling the name of a vessel, yachtspotters can often find out which rock star, hedge-fund manager or Saudi prince is enjoying that basketball court or wine cellar on board.

Garrett Aldrich, Isle au Haut mailboat captain and yachtspotter, also saw the Silver Shalis. He identified its owner, Larry Silverstein, the New York real estate developer who bought the World Trade Center weeks before 9/11.

Ultra fabulous

On July 8, Aldrich let his Facebook friends know he saw two yachts.